Historical Art by Dr. Joseph DiRienzo
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| Rare image of Oakley H. Bailey |
From the 1840s to the 1920s panoramic, “birds eye view,” and aero view maps of cities and towns throughout the United States and Canada were very popular.
The Library of Congress has over 1,500 panoramic maps (about 50 percent are of cities and towns in the U. S. Northeast).
Albert Ruger, Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler, Lucien R. Burleigh, Henry Wellge, and Oakley H. Bailey drew more than 55 percent of the panoramic maps in the Library of Congress collection.
O.H. Bailey was born into a Quaker family in Mahoning County, Ohio in 1843. He dropped out of college to serve with the 143rd Ohio Volunteer Militia, Company F during the Civil War. He returned to school, after the war, graduating in 1866. He was a teacher for a brief time before joining his brother H. H. Bailey editing business directories.
In 1871 he started making panoramic maps in Norwich, CT.
By 1874 the Bailey brothers had offices in Boston and New York City where they drew and published at first “birds-eye views” and later “aero views” maps of American cities until the late 1920s. Over the course of his career O.H. Bailey drew 374 maps issued under the imprints of Oakley H. Bailey, Oakley H. Bailey & Co., O. H. Bailey & J. C. Hazen, Bailey & Fowler, Bailey & Hughes, Bailey & Moyer, Fowler & Bailey and Hughes & Bailey. [The second photo showing a 1921 aero view map of Ansonia is an example of the fine illustration work of Oakley “Hoopes” Bailey.]
O.H. Bailey retired in 1927 after 55 years in the illustration business. Deteriorating eyesight most likely contributed to an inability to continue the tedious, close work required of a panoramic artist.
He passed away in 1947 at the age of 104. He remarked in a 1932 interview: “The business has been practically without competition as so few could give it the patience, care, and skill essential to success. But now the airplane cameras are covering the territory and can put more towns on paper in a day than was possible in months by hand work formerly."
O.H. Bailey was born into a Quaker family in Mahoning County, Ohio in 1843. He dropped out of college to serve with the 143rd Ohio Volunteer Militia, Company F during the Civil War. He returned to school, after the war, graduating in 1866. He was a teacher for a brief time before joining his brother H. H. Bailey editing business directories.
In 1871 he started making panoramic maps in Norwich, CT.
By 1874 the Bailey brothers had offices in Boston and New York City where they drew and published at first “birds-eye views” and later “aero views” maps of American cities until the late 1920s. Over the course of his career O.H. Bailey drew 374 maps issued under the imprints of Oakley H. Bailey, Oakley H. Bailey & Co., O. H. Bailey & J. C. Hazen, Bailey & Fowler, Bailey & Hughes, Bailey & Moyer, Fowler & Bailey and Hughes & Bailey. [The second photo showing a 1921 aero view map of Ansonia is an example of the fine illustration work of Oakley “Hoopes” Bailey.]
O.H. Bailey retired in 1927 after 55 years in the illustration business. Deteriorating eyesight most likely contributed to an inability to continue the tedious, close work required of a panoramic artist.
He passed away in 1947 at the age of 104. He remarked in a 1932 interview: “The business has been practically without competition as so few could give it the patience, care, and skill essential to success. But now the airplane cameras are covering the territory and can put more towns on paper in a day than was possible in months by hand work formerly."
Dirienzo, a Derby native, is Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
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